Telford and Wrekin warn of more adult social care cuts

More cuts to adult social care are “inevitable” according to Telford and Wrekin Council as it looks to save another £23m by 2016.

The authority said it spends 36p in every £1 on adult social care and needs to save £9m more from its budget.

Councillor Arnold England said there were “difficult choices ahead”.

Debbie Price, chief officer of Shropshire Partners in Care, said: “I fail to see where further cuts can come from and still provide good safe care.”

She added: “It’s a real concern and the majority of costs come from staff, the cost of training and retaining is huge.”

Ms Price said care providers had been working to reduce spending for the last 18 months.

‘No choice’

The Labour-run authority has previously said it needed to save £50m over the next four years.

It has saved more than £7m from adult social care in the last four years but is currently failing to hit targets for that budget and “major and immediate steps” need to be taken.

The council is looking at making further savings by reducing care provider costs, reducing the amount of care provided, and reviewing all care packages people receive.

Mr England said: “We have to be upfront with service users, their carers, social care providers and voluntary organisations, we simply cannot continue to fund social care as we have done.

“We have no choice but to reduce our spend on care and find cheaper care solutions – with budgets set to reduce further this trend will only continue.

“Adult social care is such a large part of the council’s budget that we cannot make the savings we must without affecting this.”